Mayra

Mayra R. Romero is a young 22 year old woman who lives with her mother in a community called Caño Negro, located in Los Chiles, in the province of Alajuela. This community is distinctive for being mountainous, and for being very close to the northern frontier of our country. Its principal economic activities are livestock and agriculture, specifically the growth of basic grains, sugarcane, and oranges.

Since Mayra finished high school, she worked helping her mother with household chores, as she had not yet found a job. Thanks to the development of sustainable tourism in the area where she lives, various hotels opened that needed staff. Thanks to the English that she learned in high school, today she is working as a receptionist in the Hotel Natural Lodge. With this work, she has been able to improve the lives of her family and herself.

Due to her schedule and the distance from her house, she has to walk alone from the place where the bus lets her off to her house at all hours of the night. It is for this reason that she is asking for a loan of ¢666,000 (six hundred and sixty-six thousand colones) for the purchase of a motorcycle so she can transport herself to the hotel and so continue with her job.

Mayra is part of the Empresa de Crédito Comunal Emcrecoba, one of the 100 member organizations belonging to EDESA in Costa Rica. This would be her first loan. However, she emphasizes that thanks to this type of organization and related credit facilitations, many people without sufficient resources can reach their dreams.

Additional Information

More information about this loan

As a small and relatively young MFI located in Costa Rica, EDESA has difficulty attracting other sources of capital. Many other microfinance funders do not work in Costa Rica, because overall the country is too rich. However, organizations such as EDESA work with extremely marginalized populations in Costa Rica that really need the access to capital that EDESA provides. By funding EDESA, Kiva lenders are allowing the organization to grow and reach more people than they otherwise would be able to reach.